MAN AND THE MACHINE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 47, 18 November 1937, Page 4

MAN AND THE MACHINE

"It seems contradictory— but is nevextheless profoundly true — that in an age wlien mechanisation is continually taking the place of human labour and when in many activities of life the individualist has to subordinate himself to the big scale plan, the accountancy profession offers greater opportunity than ever for individuaJism," ran a recent statsment of Mr A. E. Cutforth, president of the English ttnstitute of Chartefed Accountants. "In olden times — if so young a profession can be said to have had olden times — the accountant was almost ^Xclus^vely 'tlhe. preparer or checker of statements of aecdunt. The limited technique of those days counted for neariy everything; the wider qualities • of judgment, sense of proportion, tact, diplomaey— in other words the qualities related to disposition and personality — were not demanded in anything like the same degree as is the case to-day. "Many of the problems with which we are now asked ito grapple cannot be standardised; they cannot be solved by turning the handle of a cal^ulating machiue or by referring to the most exhaustive of textbooks. Eaeh problem has some speeial feature or features which distinguish it from all other problems and which cannot be resolved either by rule of thumb or by rule of three. And at the back of many problems, to add further to the diversity, there is the human element4 "The world may think that accountancy is an ' exact science; that there is little that is creative about it; that it permits of no flights of the imagination; that it offers no field for the humanities. But in reality it possesses, or may possess, all of these features. The^ttributes'may not be on the surfaee, but they are latent and they depend on the individual to bring them out. The manner in which a man interprots himself through his professional work is not the result of what he has learned of the technique of his profession but the result of what he is in himself. The technique of our profession may be likened to a musical instrument. but a musical instrument in the hands of one man is very different from what it is in the hands of another."